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My last cruise was in the Majesty and there was a merch area by the elevators which was super easy to get to and usually there were no lines. This time the only one I saw was on the promenade and there was always a huge line. The only day I finally had time to stand in line, the booth was gone. My question is, does UMC sell the merchandise on their website? Thanks!

I don't understand why they don't make pre-orders available, with a stand somewhere on the boat where you give your reservation number, and they bring you what you booked weeks/months before.This will make life easier for everyone on the boat, and avoid people coming in 3 hours after the opening of the shop, and having a slot to the merch stand on the very last day of the cruise.

I though the line was insane for the merch stand. - I popped down at 8:15 on day of opening & the queue was bonkers.

i buggered off back to my room for a couple of hours then popped back down about 10:30. I thought there was still a mega queue, but it was just loiterers hanging around. - I got ticket #860 & that was good for about 18:30 the next day after Labadee. it all went a bit batshit crazy though it moved from 798 to 850 in about 30 minutes, I was aware fortunately because my fiancee was taking a nap, so I was just chilling in the room with a beer & listening to the radio watching he numbers ( seriously addictive hahaha!) A friend of mine had #828 & I watched it buzz straight past that number. - When it got to within 20 of us, we popped down & it had increased by almost 10 numbers in just the time from our room to deck 5!when we popped down the organisers said that so many people were missing their numbers that they were told to keep the store full & so to push through the numbers to get more people in.

The amount of people we saw whilst in there who had seen the ticket numbers blast up (way past their number in a few cases) and had rushed there from whereever was nuts. - especially when one in particular had asked the merch people about 15 minutes before how long they'd have 'til their number and were told enough time to nip & see one of the bands. As he was coming out of the toilets - He only heard by chance a bunch of people shouting that the numbers had rocketed up & running down the promenade!

Whilst I see the system as pretty functional. - if that occurs and they start to prevent people from coming in, because they missed it by 10 minutes or so that'd be harsh.

It wouldn't be a bad shout to make the merch list available to 'browse' on either the website, - or an online console somewhere, so that people can view & select BEFORE they go in and spend 40 minutes procrastinating.

Is there any chance that this year the bands brought more merch than previous years?

I know that the 70K-customized t-shirts that bands bring are usually sold out within a few minutes. However this year I visited the merch stand just a few minutes before they closed for good - and spent so much time in line that I missed Amaranthe... - and I still managed to buy one of those super cool Orden Ogan 70K t-shirts (besides the regular, official 70K survivor one).

On a side note, please, please, PLEASE, let us pre-order stuff online and pick it up somewhere on the boat so those of us who know in advance what we want can skip all the nightmare than the merch thing is.

The new system worked wonders for the people who normally stand in line early Friday morning, but it was terrible for everyone else. Last year, I walked in on Saturday afternoon, stood in a short line, got my merch, and was out in 20 or 30 minutes. This year, I walked up on Saturday afternoon and was told I probably wouldn't be able to get my merch until the next day, and actually getting my merch only just barely happened on Sunday as they were about to close down the booth all together before they even got through all of the tickets that were passed out.

My buddy, who usually sits in the merch line early Friday morning after bands are done, got his ticket early (number 101, I believe he said) and he was served by the early afternoon. So, as I said, for people who usually go early, it's magical. For those of us who would rather wait until later in the cruise for a shorter line, it's a MASSIVE inconvenience.

So normally my cabin mate slept in the merch line ,he was #1 in 2016 ,this year with the new system he was #3.He is back in the room at 8:30 in the morning with all his stuff.It took 12 hours to get to number 600 so 50 an hour,which isn't too bad.It didn't work well after so many people missed their turn and the numbers started going up way too fast compared to the 50 an hour pace.

I don't pay all that money for a cruise just to stand in line and miss bands I came to see. Every year I want to buy, but I am not going to stand in line. There has to be a better way and I would like to pre-order before the cruise.

AceHugger wrote:The amount of people we saw whilst in there who had seen the ticket numbers blast up (way past their number in a few cases) and had rushed there from whereever was nuts. - especially when one in particular had asked the merch people about 15 minutes before how long they'd have 'til their number and were told enough time to nip & see one of the bands. As he was coming out of the toilets - He only heard by chance a bunch of people shouting that the numbers had rocketed up & running down the promenade!

Whilst I see the system as pretty functional. - if that occurs and they start to prevent people from coming in, because they missed it by 10 minutes or so that'd be harsh.

I was told by various people involved in merch sales that:

If you missed your number, you were screwed. No appeal.

If you missed your number, you'd be let in to get merch if it was less than ten minutes later

If you missed your number, you'd be let in to get merch if it was less than "around" thirty minutes later

So, no consistency. What troubles me is that people who missed their number -- which was VERY easy to do later in the cruise because the number was clicking up fast due to no-shows -- might not have returned even though they might have been let in toward the end....thus denying bands merch sales that they might depend on.

For myself, I wandered up there and got #663. Watched the number click up slowly that first day and realized it would be the second day. The second day started out slowly in the low 400s but, thanks to no-shows the number started clicking up fast. I just happened to pull up the number on my stateroom TV before heading out to see Amorphis and saw it was at 640 and went up 5 just as I was watching....so I ran upstairs (three decks) and got there just in time. If I hadn't checked the display, I'd have been shit outta luck -- and the bands would have been out $170. (There were still some boat-specific shirts, to my surprise.)

It wouldn't be a bad shout to make the merch list available to 'browse' on either the website, - or an online console somewhere, so that people can view & select BEFORE they go in and spend 40 minutes procrastinating.

Wouldn't be possible for band merch since the merch folks sometimes don't know what bands are bringing until embark day, or a day or two before. Those who followed Robin M.'s FB thread about merch in the Forum Fiends group DID get a bit of a heads-up.As for festival merch, I'd love it if they could take pre-orders and have them available for pickup (no cash transactions) on the boat, but Robin has indicated that this is also not possible.

Razor Ramon wrote:I don't have time to be checking tv screens all day, fuck that shit

This x100. The new system does not work for casual merch people. I figured id do the same thing I do every year, stroll up on the last day and see what pickens are left. I went up on the last day asking if they were going to just let people in without a ticket. I was told yes and to come back in 30 minutes. I come back and overhear from the same person tickets are required and by that point the kiosk was taken down.

Razor Ramon wrote:I don't have time to be checking tv screens all day, fuck that shit

This x100. The new system does not work for casual merch people. I figured id do the same thing I do every year, stroll up on the last day and see what pickens are left. I went up on the last day asking if they were going to just let people in without a ticket. I was told yes and to come back in 30 minutes. I come back and overhear from the same person tickets are required and by that point the kiosk was taken down.

Exactly, after the shit dies down I go take a look but that wasn't even a possibility this time. Also you have to be where the tv's actually are, it's not like the ship is covered in them..

Razor Ramon wrote:Exactly, after the shit dies down I go take a look but that wasn't even a possibility this time. Also you have to be where the tv's actually are, it's not like the ship is covered in them..

Exactly why I missed my number on the second day when things started going (too) quickly ! They could improve the thing by at least having TVs showing that info at each venue & windjammer entrance as people will be more frequently going through these places than their own cabin (or the on-air-club, only place where tvs showed that..).

Luckily for me I didn't miss the second ticket (took it when I realized the first one was "lost") as I happened to check the queue -and see it was moving fast toward my number- while in my cabin for a rum runner refill

On paper this queue system is probably better than queueing for hours but it still has to be improved...

Razor Ramon wrote:I don't have time to be checking tv screens all day, fuck that shit

This x100. The new system does not work for casual merch people. I figured id do the same thing I do every year, stroll up on the last day and see what pickens are left. I went up on the last day asking if they were going to just let people in without a ticket. I was told yes and to come back in 30 minutes. I come back and overhear from the same person tickets are required and by that point the kiosk was taken down.

Exactly, after the shit dies down I go take a look but that wasn't even a possibility this time. Also you have to be where the tv's actually are, it's not like the ship is covered in them..

I noticed that too. The only places I even saw the number posted was in the ice rink or the stateroom. Good idea on paper but definitely needs improvement.

Also, did they not have official 70k merch stands open as much this year? The line for both were soo stupid long I was going to wait for that too until the last day.

Tono_Fyr wrote:The new system worked wonders for the people who normally stand in line early Friday morning

Agree with that one 100%. I got in line at 7:20am, got 158, saw a few bands, and got my merch in a few hours later after checking out 2 shows.

I also happened to go up to the Viking Crown right when Andy was holding his press conference on the last day. The merch system was discussed extensively during the Q&A part. A few points I remember him making during the discussion. (I was not taking notes or anything fancy, but I believe the gist of what is described below is accurate.

They are 'considering' taking pictures of the merch as it is brought on board by the bands and running a slide show of the merch on the room TV's and elsewhere if possible. That way people can kind of pre-decide what they want.

He did say that he recognized the need to increase staffing in the merch store.

Andy emphasized that they are trying to make the merch system better, but are limited by Royal Caribbean policies, the fact that people are sharing rooms with strangers, and that a lot of merch they don't see until the bands bring it with them the day of boarding. That being said it is an area they want to improve on further.

I also learned (not at the press conference) that UMC was hoping to show the merch number counter on all the displays in the hallways and other video displays on the ship but were told by Royal Caribbean that this was not technically possible. So they settled on a direct feed to the display outside the dinning area, and on the rooms via the one channel that Royal let them use.

Posting single numbers didn't work well. They would be better off posting a group. 1-25 , 25-50 etc.

The numbers jumped almost a hundred places on the second day in the afternoon. We went in to watch Overkill and had around 90 places to go. Came out after 3 or 4 songs to check where they were at and the number went past 490 which we had. When we got to the merch area they still let us in and said there was a glitch and the numbers weren't advancing when they hit the button. So when they got it to work it jumped rather quickly afterwards. It worked alright for us, but sucks if your number comes up during one of the bands you want to see.

The only shirt that was a must-have for me was the standard 70K one. This is the one that would make a great online sales candidate. Ship it to my house 3 weeks later, I don't care, as long it arrives. But I can't afford any time waiting in line while on 70K, it's not worth it to me.

Now for my smart ass, doesn't provide any help in solving the problem, troll comment.

Online sales? Haha! Don't know what the hang up is about this. Church Lady from SNL says, "Could it be ..., SATAN?"

I never heard about the change to using numbers. Luckily, I was talking to a friend who was outside the room and he told me about it. I didn't notice the number dispenser kiosk. So I got number 969. By the way the numbers were moving, I was sure I was going to get my chance at merch on about Wednesday. Saturday, the numbers went crazy. I talked to the lady working outside and she said that they system didn't work very well.

The problem, she said, was that people would show up when their number was getting close. The people working outside would try to order them by number, but as they'd be doing that, people would be let into the room, and others would walk up with numbers in the middle of the group already there. It was essentially impossible to keep people in order. When they realized that, that's when the numbers started to go crazy fast. When I was getting in, a guy walked up and was told he needed a ticket. He pulled something like 1,700. He said, "Oh crap," after looking at the number on the screen. The lady said, "Go watch Overkill, then come back. You'll get in."

There are a few problems with the system that I can see. First, they let 5 people into the HUGE merch room at a time. Those people hem and haw about which merch to buy, and when they're finally done and leave, another person is let in. That takes too damn long. Being able to see the merch available before even getting in line would really help this.

Second, when you finally got into the room, one person working the merch would follow you through the three areas, then hand you off to the people who took your payment. That seemed kind of crazy. Why not have plastic shopping bags with your number written on it. That can be passed from section to section. Having one person follow you through the process seemed very inefficient.

The last thing is just my personal gripe. No merch on Sunday? I know it's always been that way, but surely there has to be a way that can be fixed. This is my second cruise, and both times I saw a band late on Saturday that I didn't expect to like. After seeing them I had to have a shirt, but couldn't buy any merch on Sunday. It seems to me that it should be pretty straightforward to settle up with the bands. Have them provide a count of their merch when they provide it. Count it again when setting up to make sure their count it valid. If there's a discrepancy, contact the band and settle it at the beginning of the cruise. When the merch room closes, do another count (shouldn't take as long as there will be less stuff). Provide it with payment to the band Sunday night (close at 5pm or so). That leaves time to handle conflicts or for bands that play Sunday night.

I didn't either, until I wandered by the 5th floor MDR entrance and saw them setting it up.

There are a few problems with the system that I can see. First, they let 5 people into the HUGE merch room at a time. Those people hem and haw about which merch to buy, and when they're finally done and leave, another person is let in. That takes too damn long. Being able to see the merch available before even getting in line would really help this.

As stated before, they don't see a lot of the merch until it comes onbroad and is set up.

Possible solution: after the merch area is set up, they could have one of those 70K video people walk slowly through the merch area filming the merch, and then put it on the 70K video feed. I'd rather watch a merch walk-through video on my stateroom TV than a 70K TV interview from the previous year's cruise. Or even the current year's cruise, come to think of it.

Second, when you finally got into the room, one person working the merch would follow you through the three areas, then hand you off to the people who took your payment. That seemed kind of crazy. Why not have plastic shopping bags with your number written on it. That can be passed from section to section. Having one person follow you through the process seemed very inefficient.

I don't have as much of a problem with this. It basically comes down to the same amount of people and walking required, and your "personal shopper" would have a better idea of what you selected when they get to the checkout area and tell the person there. (It seemed like they had to tell them.) The only real way to improve that process would be to have more "personal shoppers" available, and a few more of RC's point-of-sale checkouts at the end.

Pellaz wrote:Possible solution: after the merch area is set up, they could have one of those 70K video people walk slowly through the merch area filming the merch, and then put it on the 70K video feed. I'd rather watch a merch walk-through video on my stateroom TV than a 70K TV interview from the previous year's cruise. Or even the current year's cruise, come to think of it.

They could just let us look before getting in line. They used to do that where you could go in and stand on the exit area to at least preview. Then again that was the old location. If they did a video of merch we wouldn't see it until next year.

Monmisreal wrote:If they did a video of merch we wouldn't see it until next year.

We're still waiting on that DVD from year 1.

Yeah, my, uh, brilliant scheme (" ") hinges on their ability to produce a video and put it up on the in-room TV channel by the middle of the first full day onbroad. That might be a bit too optimistic, although the video facilities for doing so are already on the ship.

The number system does not work. last year I slept in line for 4 hours only to find out that most bands I liked on the cruise didn't even bring merch, but at least I got in and grabbed something Iced Earth. This year was completely different. I grabbed number 1134. I don't think they even made it to 1000? So we were never let in to buy merch. Luckily I was able to grab 70k merch but even that line took way too long for how little people were in it.

Man, usually I show up whenever I have a break between bands on the first day to buy stuff. Usually around 3pm and I wait about 2 hours to buy stuff.

This year I picked up my ticket at 12:49. My number was 1118. On day 3 they ended at 1070 so I knew I was going to be early on day 4 so I set an alarm for 8:30. At 8:30 they were at about 1200 so I jumped out of bed, threw a stick of gum in my mouth and ran down to merch. I was so damn groggy I don't know if they sold out of the good stuff already or if the bands I like didn't bring much but I could not find anything I liked. Maybe I was just so tired I couldn't find stuff on the wall. I usually get about $100 but this year I only bought 1 CD. I tried to go back later in the day to see if I missed anything but I was not allowed in.

I would much rather wait in line at a time of my choosing than wake up at 8am again for nothing!

A roped off viewing area would be great! It would save so much time to plan ahead what to buy. In my case it would have let me know I did not need to wake up at 8am.

An online store would be the best option, either online before the cruise or through the TV's in the stateroom. I would even pay extra to have it delivered to my stateroom. They could still have the merch area for those who don't do the online store or for bands who bring last minute merch.

Jephi wrote:An online store would be the best option, either online before the cruise or through the TV's in the stateroom. I would even pay extra to have it delivered to my stateroom. They could still have the merch area for those who don't do the online store or for bands who bring last minute merch.

I talked to Robin M., 70K's "merch maven" about this and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. In some cases they don't know which bands are bringing merch, or what they're bringing, until the morning of embark. The first time a true glimpse of all the band merch can be had is after the merch area has been fully set up, so an online store isn't possible. Also, see below regarding RC's "venue cut" and sales made prior to embark.

Robin has also consistently ruled out any deliveries to people's staterooms for several reasons, including: Royal Caribbean can't legally allow access to people's staterooms and can't/won't do deliveries through their stewards, and there are obvious theft concerns for single-ticket shared cabins.

I'd have loved to see a pre-paid, expedited pickup of festival merch onbroad, maybe just for t-shirts, but that's also been ruled out due to personnel and space concerns.....plus Royal wouldn't want to surrender their venue cut on sales made off the ship.

Pellaz wrote:Possible solution: after the merch area is set up, they could have one of those 70K video people walk slowly through the merch area filming the merch, and then put it on the 70K video feed. I'd rather watch a merch walk-through video on my stateroom TV than a 70K TV interview from the previous year's cruise. Or even the current year's cruise, come to think of it.

We don't need video. We need pictures. Just take pictures of both side of every shirt with the price, and whether it's for male of female. Post those picture outside the room. Either that, or as Monmisreal suggested, have sample stuff someplace where people could walk by and see it without impeding the people who are actually shopping.

I don't have as much of a problem with this. It basically comes down to the same amount of people and walking required, and your "personal shopper" would have a better idea of what you selected when they get to the checkout area and tell the person there. (It seemed like they had to tell them.) The only real way to improve that process would be to have more "personal shoppers" available, and a few more of RC's point-of-sale checkouts at the end.

Agreed. More personal shopper are needed. But who is going to volunteer to sit in that room and help people buy merch rather than watching bands?

Pellaz wrote:Possible solution: after the merch area is set up, they could have one of those 70K video people walk slowly through the merch area filming the merch, and then put it on the 70K video feed. I'd rather watch a merch walk-through video on my stateroom TV than a 70K TV interview from the previous year's cruise. Or even the current year's cruise, come to think of it.

We don't need video. We need pictures. Just take pictures of both side of every shirt with the price, and whether it's for male of female. Post those picture outside the room. Either that, or as Monmisreal suggested, have sample stuff someplace where people could walk by and see it without impeding the people who are actually shopping.

Well, I figured it'd be easier to take and post one (or a couple) of hi-res videos than several hundred photos. :)

I don't have as much of a problem with this. It basically comes down to the same amount of people and walking required, and your "personal shopper" would have a better idea of what you selected when they get to the checkout area and tell the person there. (It seemed like they had to tell them.) The only real way to improve that process would be to have more "personal shoppers" available, and a few more of RC's point-of-sale checkouts at the end.

Agreed. More personal shopper are needed. But who is going to volunteer to sit in that room and help people buy merch rather than watching bands?[/quote]

Maybe....people who are also promised first crack at the merch? Maybe offer a comp festival tee-shirt as schwag?

this whole thing seems absolutely ridiculous to me. I've never been before so I don't exactly know best, but this is a fucking HUGE ship - why can't there be four or five merch stands dotted about? For arguments sake let's say four about the boat for festival merch and then one besides whichever is most centrally located for band march. Clearly having just one is insane, if not for reading everyone's stories here then just for common sense? Like I said, I've never been and I'm sure there's a good reason...?

As a side note, does much festival merch survive until the last day? If I go all that way and can't get a shirt skulls will be cracked...

There was a mini stand with only a few sets of 70000Tons shirts and stuff in the promenade, but that was it. No merchandise from any band, a lot of 70K merchandise missing, and only available in the main merch stand.

Except if any band is printing an exclusive shirt to die for, or if I'm hit by insomnia and unable to sleep, there's no way I'm going through this hell again. I got some 70K merch this year, and I'm going to stick with it.

ollyhills wrote:this whole thing seems absolutely ridiculous to me. I've never been before so I don't exactly know best, but this is a fucking HUGE ship - why can't there be four or five merch stands dotted about? For arguments sake let's say four about the boat for festival merch and then one besides whichever is most centrally located for band march. Clearly having just one is insane, if not for reading everyone's stories here then just for common sense? Like I said, I've never been and I'm sure there's a good reason...?

There are several good reasons. There are 60 bands on the boat and all of them can bring merch (although not all do so). When you go through the merch area you'll see how much room is required, and all of that merch takes a lot of effort to set up just in one area, let alone two or three. All the merch has to be processed through Royal Caribbean's point-of-sale registers, since the cruise line takes a percentage of merch sales (much like concert venues do on shore), and because your onbroad seapass/room key card is used for all transactions. It's not like it's some table in the back of a venue where someone just takes your cash for a shirt. That's why there aren't too many little kiosks all over the ship for 70K merch sales, although they DO provide two alternate locations for festival merch sales. I've only ever seen the one in the Promenade, though.

There's a lot of good discussion about merch issues on Facebook in the "70K Tons of Merch Complaints" group if you want to look into it further. Robin, 70K's chief merch person, actively posts and comments there.

As a side note, does much festival merch survive until the last day? If I go all that way and can't get a shirt skulls will be cracked...

Yes, there should be some t-shirts left even pretty late into the cruise, but I wouldn't wait too long as they have to start packing up during the last sea-day.

Newbie question here... So do I have to stand in line to get a number to get merch?Then once my number is called I go to merch booth and buy merch, assuming i dont miss my number call.What happens if I miss my number?